Rite of the Last Breath
by Jallybwan
Summary: Sally was indeed corrupted by the Entity. She did go insane. She did "purify" all of the patients at Crotus Prenn Asylum. But what the fragmented diary of Benedict Baker never told you was that certain... preparations must be taken before one becomes a killer. Rated M for violence and psychological horror, and because I'm paranoid. Also, DBD.
1. Fragile Wheeze

**Chapter 1 - Fragile Wheeze**

 **I don't own DBD, Behaviour Studios does. If I owned it NOED would still last forever. Although if I owned it, it would suck.**

* * *

Sally woke up in a vortex of black light. She couldn't remember much, only hallways and cramped rooms and... blood?

'Where am I?'

She tried to look around, only to find her head locked in place by an unseen hand. She started to pant heavily, struggling in vain to move. Not even a finger twitched.

'Oh hell no, I'm not staying here. Wake up, Sally! Dammit!'

After a few more attempts at breaking free, she gave up and resigned herself to staying there forever. She would never see Andrew again...

Andrew. No. Andrew was dead. There was only a gaping hole in her heart now. She remembered the day his foreman had knocked on her door with his hat in his hand.

/Flashback/

Sally rushed to the door, ready to envelop her loving husband in a bear hug. Throwing open the door, she was surprised to see a very forlorn, bulky man.

"Oh, Mr. Lundson? Hi there, nice to see you! Uh, where's Andrew...?

Mr. Lundson lifted his gaze, unable to fully look Sally in the eye. "Mrs. Smithson, I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Sally's face fell. "Oh... oh no, please, anything but... oh please, not my Andrew!"

Lundson sighed, a deep gust of wind that almost sounded like a chorus of hushed whispers. "You... you might want to sit down, Mrs. Smithson."

* * *

"How... how did it happen?"

Sally was slouched in her armchair, her hands wrapped around a cup of tea long gone cold. Her face was stained with tears, her eyes puffy and bloodshot.

"There was a particularly big tree we were attempting to bring down, and the man cutting didn't do a very good job of checking everyone's positions. The tree fell, and... Andrew was under it. I'm so sorry Mrs. Smithson. It was all a terrible accident."

Sally nodded emotionlessly, before her face crumpled and she began to sob uncontrollably. "I... I... what will I... do now?"

Lundson grimaced. "We... we can support you for up to about a month while you grieve, but after that..."

Sally attempted to collect herself, only succeeding enough to choke out a sentence. "Thank... thank you for coming. I... I understand how hard it... must have been to deliver the n-news..."

Lundson pursed his lips. "I know someone at the Crotus Prenn Asylum, maybe you could get a job there."

Sally smiled weakly. "Thank you Mr. Lundson, I-I'll think about it."

He got up and walked towards the door. Gathering her courage, Sally cried after him.

"Mr. Lundson? What was the name of the man cutting the tree down?"

Lundson turned, and was surprised to see a steely resolve in her watery eyes. He almost decided against telling her, but eventually figured she had the right to know.

"Patrick Spencer."

She nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Lundson."

* * *

 **Warning: Death**

"You! You killed him! You sorry excuse for a maggot-ridden diseased human! You had one job and you screwed it up! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!"

Sally rushed at the bed-ridden Spencer before wrapping her hands around his meaty neck. Being a nurse had its advantages, and she knew exactly where to press to deprive him of the oxygen he needed.

"You killed him! You killed him! You ruined my life! NOW I'LL AVENGE HIM!"

Spencer thrashed around and tried to pry Sally's hands off of his neck, but her fury had made her invariably stronger than him. She throttled him, shaking him in his bed and screaming in rage.

Eventually his movements died down, before coming to a halt entirely. His eyes rolled back in his head and glossed over, his face blue.

Satisfied with her work, Sally released her grip on the man's neck and began to giggle. Her giggles became cackles, and she was soon shaking in pure ecstasy.

"Sally? Hello? What was that... OH MY -"

The poor nurse poking her head around the door had picked a horrible time. At this point Sally's mind couldn't take any more. She had snapped, and snapped badly at that.

Acting on instinct, she grabbed a nearby bone-saw used for operating and slashed downwards at the interloper, silencing her cry for help.

 **End Warning**

She heard a sigh behind her and turned. Her jaw hit the floor as she watched a small, bright light come out of Spencer's lifeless corpse. She watched as it floated over to her, before dissipating into a thick mist and entering her arm.

Sally stared, transfixed, at her arm. It was beginning to turn black, and emit a strange black fog. It crackled with electricity.

Hypnotically, she held it out and opened her hand, seeing the same little light dancing in her palm. She clenched her fist, and nearly had a heart attack as she phased forward at a blinding speed. Straight through a wall.

/End Flashback/

Sally began to cry again as she remembered Andrew's loving smile. She lay in the dark for ages, tears streaming down her face as she lost herself in her memories.

She wanted to get out of here. What Andrew would have wanted.

'You will not keep me here! I will move!'

She chanted this over and over again, straining every muscle in her body, determined to get free.

'You will not keep me here! I will move!'

Sally lifted a finger. It was one finger, one she couldn't see, but it gave her hope. She redoubled her efforts and drove herself further, eventually being able to move her whole arm.

'You will not keep me here! I WILL MOVE!'

Her whole body was shaking from the effort, her free arm flailing wildly. If this was the afterlife, she wasn't staying dead for long!

'I WILL MOVE!'

She heard a crack, and felt something behind her give. The shackles that held her were breaking! She wriggled some more, feeling them get looser and looser.

'I WILL MOVE!'

With a final tug forward, Sally felt the invisible shackles fall away from her. She was free! She sat up, feeling for her face. She touched something that felt like... linen? She pulled it free and looked around at her surroundings.

She was in a small, dank, off-white room with a bed and a dresser, a lamp on a desk next to her. A door was to her left, the hinges looking rusted. There were no windows, but the lamp provided enough light to see anyway. But the strangest thing was the chair at the foot of her bed.

And the man sitting in it.

"Hello Sally. You're probably wondering where you are, right?"

Sally nodded. "Who... who are... you?

Her voice was raspy after a long time without use. And... her throat was sore?

The man shrugged. "I have many names, Sally. To answer the other question, you are in the Crotus Prenn Asylum.

Sally's pupils dilated in fear. "No... not here... please, not here..."

The man stood up and began to walk out the door. "I'll explain later, but for now, get some rest. You nearly killed yourself with all that straining.

Before he closed the door, Sally rasped out a question.

"Wait! W-What's your name?"

He turned and looked at her, a strange gleam in his eye. Eventually, he turned away and said

"You can call me Benedict Baker."

 **Chapter 1 End!**

 **I'm happy with how this turned out, considering I wrote it in 1 ½ days. Review on what you'd like to see next! Drop a review and tell me how I did, and if you have any questions about the storyline, PM me and I'll explain as much as I can without spoiling it.**

 ***Crickets chirping***

 **...Or I could be talking to myself. Wouldn't be the first time.**

 **-Jallybwan**


	2. Mental Breakdown

**Again, I don't own DBD. Nurse would still have three blinks if I did. Maybe I should make Sally do these instead.**

 **Sally: I've got enough on my hands as it is!**

 **Me: *mutters* Including Spencer's blood...**

 **Sally: I heard that!**

Sally was bored. So bored. Benedict Baker had left her in this stupid room to contemplate her existence. The only problem was that one can only sit still for a certain amount of hours before getting bored.

Twiddling her thumbs was the last thing she wanted to do. But even if she could get out of bed, which she couldn't, the door was locked and Baker had the key. Breaking it down wasn't an option, as Sally was never very strong.

She lay her head on her hard pillow and stared at the ceiling, trying to doze off. She eventually succeeded, only to be woken up by a loud creak as the door began to open.

Baker walked in with a neutral expression on his face. "Sally, we didn't know you could already Blink. That's impressive."

Sally blinked (with her eyes). "Blink? I just did, how is that impressive?"

He shook his head and sighed. She had been too out of it to process his looks before, but now that her head was clear she could see that he wasn't all that bad. He was tall, no doubt, but not towering. His light brown hair reached to his forehead in a sloppy bowl-cut, just above a pair of piercing blue eyes. His clothes were nothing special, a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt, and ripped jeans. His boots were slightly old-fashioned, made of the same material as his jacket.

"No, I mean that teleport thing you did in the asylum. You went through a wall, sound familiar?"

Sally tilted her head and squinted her eyes at him. Now that he mentioned it, it did in fact sound familiar. "Wait, was that when I..."

"Snapped? You went on a rampage and killed every patient and nurse in the building, Sally. We're surprised you forgot."

Sally shrugged. "Must have been, oh I don't know, the insanity? Pretty sure that would do it."

Baker tilted his head in agreement. "Fair enough. Come with me, I'll take you to the trial area."

"Trial area?"

"It's easier if you just follow me."

"No, you're gonna tell me what the hell is going on. I woke up in a void, unable to move, and started to dream about my life. Then I broke free and somehow I'm in this room, you're sitting at the front of the bed, and I have a massive headache. Now you're talking about Blinks and Trials and..." Sally faltered. "What happened to me?"

He looked at her with a downcast face. "Simply put, you died Sally. How on earth one would forget their own death we have absolutely no idea."

She looked at him, her face betraying nothing. Then she cracked a smile. Then a grin, then she snickered, and soon she was clutching her sides, tears streaming down her face.

"Died? Hahaha, how... could I have... hehe... died if I'm talking to you?"

He gazed at her sternly and waited until she was in a space to listen. "You think I'm joking? What purpose would that serve?"

Sally rolled her eyes and stared at him sardonically. "Prove it then, how could I be dead? Let's hear it!"

"Do you remember your throat feeling sore? The pillowcase over your head?"

She tilted her head and just looked at him.

He sighed. "Do I have to spell it out? You. Hanged. Yourself."

Sally chuckled "Nice try, but that still doesn't explain why I'm talking to you."

Baker glared at her. "Do you believe in an afterlife, Sally? That black void was Hell. I managed to... strike a deal, let's say, and bring your soul here instead. Consider it purgatory, if you will."

She blinked (again, like a normal human) and pursed her lips. "Well if that's true, I guess I owe you one. Thanks."

Baker grinned, his smile abnormally wide. "You won't owe me for long, I have a way to get even. Follow me, please."

Sally rolled over and swung her legs out onto the hard brick floor. They walked for a while, turning left and right through the asylum and came to a black door. Not black paint, just... black. Pure darkness.

Baker stepped through it without hesitation, and after a while Sally did the same. She felt like stepping through a meat locker, her skin crawled with cold. She shivered.

She came out the other side and looked around in surprise. She couldn't believe what she saw. Instead of the woods around the asylum, they were in a sort of campsite, with logs strewn around a large bonfire and plains of grey grass stretching to the horizon in every direction.

"What the hell is this place? Doesn't look like Crotus Prenn to me."

Baker ignored her. "Wait here. You'll be collected in a moment."

"So, how can I get even with you? Is there someone you want dead? Something delivered?"

Baker shrugged. "You'll see in a minute. Just as you owe me, I am in debt to someone much higher. I'm just supposed to bring people here. People who killed someone. People with a reason for hatred. All I know is that you'll go through some sort of trial to determine if you have what it is they're looking for."

Sally tilted her head in confusion. "Wait, so I owe you but you owe someone else? Does that mean I owe them too?"

"It's easier just not to think about it."

And with that, he began to walk off through the grey grass.

"Where are you going?"

He ignored her and kept going until he was out of sight.

At a loss of what to do, Sally plopped herself down on one of the logs and waited. About five minutes later, she heard a distant shriek. Then another, slightly closer. Then another, and another, until she could see a faint light blinking out and reappearing a bit nearer to the fire. Each blink was accompanied by that horrible shrill cry.

Eventually she could make out a floating woman, wrapped in bandages and the same blinking light in her hand that Sally had when she killed Spencer.

She stood up and squinted, trying to make out a face, but all she could see was a... white pillowcase? It looked just like the one that covered her own head when she first woke up.

The woman neared the campfire at an alarming speed, too fast to follow any law of physics she knew. And she knew them all, she was top of her Physics class as a teenager.

Sally just kept standing there, staring at her and trying to figure out what the hell was happening. After a few more seconds, she was startled backwards, tripping over a log. The woman had just appeared right in her face.

Speechless, Sally stared up at her and tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.

The woman looked at her, although it didn't seem like it because of the pillowcase over her head. Sally could _feel_ her eyes piercing right through the linen and straight at her face. The woman spoke in a calm, strangely serene voice that didn't at all fit how she looked.

"So, you're the new girl? You're the one who's going to take the trial?"

Sally just nodded mutely. She assumed she was, based on what Baker had told her earlier.

"Right then. Come on, get up. We haven't got all day. Or night. Whatever the time is in this place."

Sally scrambled to get to her feet. Somehow she knew this woman was _not_ to be pissed off. Finally finding her voice, she said in a hasty tone

"Who are you? What's going on?"

Sally expected to be left in the dark or ignored again, but the woman agreed to a compromise. "Walk and talk. Or blink and talk. Whatever suits you, but we need to get moving."

Sally decided that teleporting might make her throw up the nothing she had for breakfast, maybe even the sod all for lunch. She started walking, before realizing the woman wasn't following her.

"Wrong way, genius. Trial area's over that way." She began to walk, or float, in the direction she had pointed.

Sally facepalmed before hissing in pain. It turned out that smacking your hand into your forehead whilst you have a headache really hurts. Fancy that!

She hurried to catch up with the woman. "So, what's going on? What is the trial area? Who is Benedict Baker? In fact, who are you?"

The lady looked at her, making Sally realize she had maybe asked too much. Instead of complaining, she just answered her questions one by one.

"You've met the criteria to be selected for one of the Entity's workers. We keep it alive, it keeps us alive. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship, only with souls. The trial area is best seen yourself, it's kind of hard to explain. We don't know much about Baker, he just brings people here and we escort them to the trial area. As for me, my name is Lucy and I was a nurse, just like you. If you were, say, a car crusher, for example, we'd have someone else pick you up. Reason being you need someone like yourself to tutor you, teach you the things you need to know to work for the Entity."

Sally blinked (you know the deal) and tried to process all of the information. "I would ask more, Lucy, but I feel like it would get me nowhere. I'll wait until we get to the trial area first."

Lucy smiled, Sally could tell by the way the pillowcase twitched. "Good girl. Most of them would bombard me, and even I can't answer everything."

They walked (or floated) for a while before Sally could see a large, colosseum-looking building in the distance, partially shrouded in grey fog. "Is that the trial area?"

Lucy nodded. "Yep. I think it would be best for me to go ahead and clear your entry. I'll meet you inside."

With that, she held up her hand and stretched her arm out towards the building. Sally could see that same ball of light dancing around in her palm. Before she could ask about that, Lucy clenched her fist and shot forward, leaving behind a trail of mist and, strangely, flower petals, in her wake. Not long after she re-materialized about ten metres in front of Sally, she heard an ear-piercing shriek fill the air.

Sally, after taking her fingers out of her ears, looked ahead to see a faint glow she assumed was Lucy speed off towards the trial area. Setting her face in a determined glare, she held her head high and walked toward the colosseum.

Toward her first Trial.

 **Chapter 2 done! =)**

 **Me: *falls to knees* Please forgive me! I'm sorry about the long update time, I just couldn't find the motivation or ideas until now...**

 **Sally: Yeah... you were just absorbed in your Fairy Tail, weren't you?**

 **Me: It's a good anime! I recommend watching it. Might make you a little more friendly.**

 **Sally: *glares***

 **Me: My point exactly. Now, a huge thanks to:**

 **Multipule-Characters1-Acct, TheTombedSpirit, and tuniejr for following/favouriting RotLB! That was what eventually drove me to make this chapter, and maybe if I get enough support I'll actually finish the story :P**

 **Again, a HUGE thanks to you three for your support, and as always, review and tell me how I did! :D**

 **-Jallybwan**


End file.
